Arab Left and the Way Forward

A big portion of the Arab left is a copycat of the European one, which is a bit ludicrous because it thus doesn’t consider the huge differences in economic and societal conditions, and the fact that Arab countries are still to a large extent pre-industrial. It is useless to advocate women and LGBT rights, and progressive social values while the social and political landscape is still pre-modern. They idolize the Scandinavian social democracy, but they turn a complete blind eye to Scandinavian value system and cultural background which spawn high levels of productivity.

The other portions of the Arab left hark back to the Nasserite era of the 60s with its huge public sector and state-owned industry. This, in fact, is akin to living in a time warp because the industralisation project of Nasser was totally reliant on Soviet investments, as the Russians wanted to put up Egypt and India as a model in the third world countering the Western one.

Meanwhile, the European left- the main source of ideas for progressives in the Arab world- is in double bind trying to preserve the welfare state while it realizes that the rising Asian competition require boosting competitiveness. The farther you go left the more you bounce into warmed over versions of popular democracy and Putinist patron state. The failure of Syriza and the Brexit referendum have demonstrated the impracticality of popular democracy. And the economic backwardness of Russia should hardly make it a model anywhere.

The Silicon Valley model, the ongoing fourth industrial revolution, carbon-silicon interface, and advancements in biotechnology offer glimpses of new era where man’s place in their environment will be altered.

Hence, the left’s grand intellectual project should be devising new forms of organization that ensure harmony in a novel era. At present, it should look for a nuanced recipe that balances private enterprise against the need for state guidance to steer the way into the new era.

Since emulating the wheel is always more rational than reinventing it, progressive politics in Egypt should focus on directing the biggest chunk of our GDP into investments in building knowledge networks in biotechnology, robotics and renewable energy accompanied by a program to modernise the social infrastructure in the country through reconstructing institutions and gearing the educational system towards culture change. Capital can be mustered through divesting resources from rent-seeking crony capitalists and oligarchs.

Good rulers make a difference as the experiences of Singapore, south Korea and Taiwan have shown. Let’s hope that the establishment in Egypt sheds its parochial interests and revolutionizes Egypt’s orientation, if only to preserve their vested interests with all the regional Tsunamis that are building up.